There are bright possibilities in every cloud, and even a rainy Fourth of July is no exception. So the Joyville Juniors discovered. Of course, they were intending to have a picnic, besides enjoying the regulation fireworks; and here was a cold, steady drizzle, for all the world as if it were November.

Great were the lamentations; but just as the “Sultan of Sulkydom” was about to have everything his own way he was put to rout by a big covered wagon driven around from one house to another where the Joyville Juniors lived. There were twenty-three of them in the society; but sixteen houses contained them all, and fourteen of these were quite close together; so it was not more than an hour before the last youngsters were collected and all were landed in the big upper room of Judge Elsworth’s house. Miss Elsworth, the Junior superintendent, welcomed them with a certain twinkle of the eyes which made every Junior instantly conclude that in spite of the rain they would manage to have a good time.

“Just wait a minute until the Independence Wizard comes in,” said Miss Elsworth mysteriously, “and then the best part of the fun will begin.”

The children were breathless. Presently there were three sharp raps at the door, and the Independence Wizard was ushered in.

Two artistically draped table-covers, a wig, mask, skull-cap, and glasses had transformed Miss Elsworth’s brother into a very presentable wizard, and after entertaining the children for a half-hour with parlor magic he produced from apparently nowhere a bundle of bright-colored tissue-paper, some tinsel, a rubber ball, a large potato, a dried sunflower stalk, and several other mysterious things, and said: “Presto! change! The weather is not quite all we expected outdoors; but we are independent, and will make our own fair weather right here. We will make our own fireworks, too, and fire them off without even waiting till night. That is what wizards are good for, if they are Independence Wizards; and every one of you is going to learn the wizard trade, beginning this very minute; that is, if you want to. Do you?”

Of course they did, and the girls were assured that this splendid offer included them too; for would they not make the very best of witches?

With the aid of his sister, who had mysteriously disappeared a short time before, and who reappeared now as the Independence Witch, with a book of magic all her own in the form of a magazine saved for just such an emergency, the wizard soon had the children absorbed in making the charming paper fireworks fully described by Lina Beard in The Delineator for July, 1902. They can be fired off indoors as well as outdoors; and the gorgeous comets, brilliant pinwheels, sparkling calumet with its bright sparks flying all over the hair and clothing of the experimenters, the sunflower-stalk sky-rocket, and the bamboo pistol with potato bullets, were all as fascinating as they were harmless.

After the bright showers indoors had made the revellers quite forget the dull showers outside, a giant firecracker candy-box was called into use; and with songs, stories, and a lunch which disappeared so rapidly as to convince any skeptic of the acquired magical powers of those present, the fireworks were sorted out, and many of them were found to be quite uninjured. These were carefully packed in a box for the Children’s Home, and the Juniors voted that rainy day the best Independence celebration ever held in Joyville.